Alice in Wonderland

Derived from the children's fantasy story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland (comparative more Alice in Wonderland, superlative most Alice in Wonderland)

1. As in a surreal fairy tale where things work at odds to the way they do in the real world.
   • 1978, Popular Mechanics, Apr 1978, Vol. 149, No. 4, p. 204:

     It is an Alice in Wonderland question. Let me answer it this way: To design a car, you must — emphasize must — have restrictions to guide you.

   • 1984, Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons, Parliamentary debates: Official report, Volume 75, p. 335:

     Members with a fascination for the horrid to look at the explanatory memorandum, which deals with fresh fruit and vegetables. It discloses the most Alice-in- Wonderland situation ever.

   • 1987, Acres, U.S.A.: Volume 6 :

     The law-making affair often has an Alice in Wonderland touch. Terms are defined by law, and if the law says black is white, then for the purpose of the law, black it white.

   • 1992, Network World, Sep 7, 1992, Vol. 9, No. 36, p. 37:

     IBM's current system and network management story has an Alice in Wonderland touch to it, with incongruity as the prevailing theme. Just as it is in Wonderland, most things in IBM's management story are not what they appear to be.

   • 2001, Phil Gramm, Congressional Record-Senate, March 29, 2001, page 5053:

     What makes this debate an Alice in Wonderland debate is that the people who support this bill are the very people who will benefit from taking the American people out of the debate by limiting the ability of people to put up their time.

   • 2002, Alan Stripp, Codebreaker in the Far East, page 35:

     It became more Alice in Wonderland all the time: was I now to navigate as well?

   • 2008, Lisa Margonelli, Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank, page 68:

     This is all a little more Alice in Wonderland than I had expected.

   • 2008, Gordon Stobart, Testing Times, page 137:

     What gives this an even more Alice-in-Wonderland feel is that the Average Yearly Progress targets are based on what must be done to achieve this impossible goal...

   • 2011 A. Bowdoin Van Riper, Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt, p. 120:

     After the creature recites the value of pi—erroneously, as it turns out—its mouth disappears and it splits back into separate geometric shapes. It's an Alice-in-Wonderland moment, to be sure.

• caucus race
• Cheshire cat
• rabbit hole
• mad hatter

• Alice in Wonderland syndrome